The present invention relates to a system for providing a managing system which manages a number of managed systems with information. The invention also relates to a managing system which is provided with information. The invention further relates to a method for providing a managing system managing a number of managed systems with information. Still further the invention relates to a telecommunications system comprising a number of managing systems each managing a number of managed systems in which the managing systems are provided with information.
Generally the amount of information relating to most managed systems is very high and complex to handle in ain optimum way both because of the amount and because of the difficulty in getting access to the information that is really accurate, i.e. information that is correct for the purpose, up-to-date and for example comprises the particular version or revision etc. that is actually needed. Thus in systems known tcday, the provision of the particular piece of information that is needed is a difficult issue both because of the amount of information and because the information is not time-invariant, i.e. it is up-dated, changed etc.
Mostly, therefore, various tools are needied to enable the provision of information and support the user interaction with various managed systems.
In a number of systems which are known today managed systems comprise so called network elements which comprise various services and/or resources wherein in the network elements are comprised in a telecommunications network. The network comprises a considerable amount of various types of equipment but also a high number of various services may be comprised. Furthermore equipment of one and the same type may be provided in a number of different versions and revisions. Thus the different services and resources which are provided in the network element may be very complex for a user to handle, monitor and control. The information as such may comprise substantially all kinds of information that is needed by the user who interacts with the managed system, particularly it may describe usage, limitations, procedures, error-print-outs and so on.
The managing system, in the known embodiment referred to as operations system, which here is used to monitor and control the equipment and the services provided by the network elements must know what information is related to a given piece of equipment or to a service. The operations system must also be informed on possible changes to the equipment and the services. This requires that new information is made available to the operations systems. This is both complicated and complex and it gets more difficult the higher the number of equipment and services existing. In order to facilitate the user interaction with the network elements it is known from the known system to provide graphical tools for the user interface. However, even if the user interface is explanatory and the user interaction is facilitated, it is also important that the information is correct and up-to-date.
This puts requirements on a correlation of the information with the concept described by the information. A further complicating factor is that the operations system sometimes exist in a multilingual environment.
In order to provide an up-to-date information the information is in the known system manually transferred to the operation systems. This gets very complex since it is necessary to maintain knowledge of which operations systems are used for managing a particular set of equipment and/or services. Furthermore, when new equipment or new services are introduced in the network elements, it may be necessary to introduce new information to the operations systems which is time consuming in a complex environment. The more complex the environment, the more time it takes. During the time spent on introducing this new information to the operations systems, the operations systems still work with the old piece of information relating to the concerned equipment or the concerned services which in turn may lead to improper actions being taken by the operator.
It is an object of the present invention to p:rovide a system for providing a managing system with accurate, correct and up-to-date information in a reliable way and in a way which is not demanding for a user. Particularly it is an object of the invention to provide a system and a method for providing a managing system with an up-dated and correct view of the documentation and information on facilities such as equipment, services etc. that exist in a communications system or a communication network in which the managed system or systems are arranged.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system and a method for facilitating monitoring and controlling of managed systems which are managed by the managing system. It is also an object to provide a managing system with information in order to facilitate user interaction with system managed by the managing system. Particularly it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and a method respectively through which it is not necessary to introduce new information to a managing system when systems managed by said managing system are provided with new information, up-graded etc. i.e. to provide for the managing system not having to be up-graded. Particularly it is an object of the present invention to provide a s;ystem and a method respectively which fulfils the above mentioned requirements also when the amount of information, in particularly relating to various versions, revisions etc of equipments and services and so on provided by managed system, is high.
Still a further object is to correlate the information with information relating to the concept described by the information. Yet another object is to provide a system and a method through hich can be avoided the necessity of maintaining knowledge of which managing system manages a given managed system related to e.g. a given set of equipment or services etc.
In a particular embodiment it is an object of the invention to provide a system and a method for providing an operation system, managing a number of network elements in an efficient, correct and up-dated manner, with the information relating to the network elements managed by the operation system without having to up-grade the operations system itself when the services or equipments of the network elements are changed, up-dated, having been removed, added etc.
Moreover it is an object of the present invention to provide for the provision of a managing system, in a particular case an operations system, with the correct and up-to-date information which is related to a given piece of information such as services, equipment etc.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a telecommunications system comprising a number of managing systems which manage a number of managed systems wherein the managed systems are provided with accurate, correct and up-to-date information without having to up-grade the managing systems when new information is introduced or when the information relating to services, equipments etc. are changed in one way or another.
These as well as other objects are achieved through a system and a method respectively which comprises at least one information storing means which is provided with original information documentation relevant to the managed systems managed by the managing system wherein said information storing means are up-graded and wherein the managing system comprises means for fetching information from one of the information storing means and wherein the managing system further comprises a cache for holding the information that has been fetched from the information storing means.
Particularly a managing system is provided with on-line documentation which e.g. is stored in information storing means e.g. of a managed system. The information storing means is upgraded.
Through a telecommunications system the objects are achieved through the provision of information storing means which are up-graded when information is added, removed or changed in one way or another wherein each managing system comprises fetching means for fetching information from the information storing means and wherein the managing systems also comprises information holding means comprising a cache for holding the information that has been fetched from the information storing means.
It is an advantage of the invention that the managing system always has an up-to-date and correct view of the documentation of and information about facilities such as equipments, services etc. related to the managed systems. It is also an advantage that through the invention a system or particularly a telecommunications system is provided wherein the user interaction with the managed systems is facilitated. A further advantage is that the information that is needed does not have to be manually transferred to the managing systems and that no time is lost for introducing new information into the managing systems themselves, i.e. to up-grade them which prevents the user or the operator in a communication system etc. from taking improper actions.
It is also an advantage of the invention that the user knows that the documentation or the information that he is provided with is the correct documentation or information with respect to version, revision etc.
Still another advantage of the invention is that, since the managing systems do not have to be up-graded, the need for coordination of the overall system is considerably reduced.